Typical finger plates of the prior art have long slender flexible fingers disposed in channels between the raised ribs defining the conveying surface of a modular belt, and are positioned for continuation of the conveying surface at a position where the conveyor belt moves in a curved path about a sprocket wheel, as seen in FIG. 17 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,187 to James M. Lapeyre, May 23, 1989, for example. The tip ends of the fingers are inclined downwardly from the conveying surface to lie just below the conveying surface. Snap in mounts for quickly removing the finger plates when damaged are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,158 to W. A. Borsboom, et al., Jun. 21, 1994, and such finger plates are rotatably mounted for optional insertion and use in U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,659, Robert H. Bode, et al., Jan. 28, 1992.
The long slender fingers made of plastic however were subject to vibration and flexing, thus increasing the possibility of letting broken glass fragments which are carried in the conveyor belt channels to sneak under the finger tips without being deflected upwardly and out of the belt. Accordingly the fingers have been shortened heretofore to improve performance.
However, with thicker shorter and thus stronger fingers in which broken glass fragments may become wedged for example, significant pressures may be exerted against finger plates to produce tilt and wobble forces that misalign the junction of the finger plate and the conveyor belt and interrupt the discharge of articles conveyed by the belt on the finger plate platform or cause catastrophic failure of a finger plate assembly.
Accordingly an explicit object of the invention is to provide an improved finger plate mounting assembly that will produce reliable flow of articles from the belt onto a finger plate when encountering broken glass fragments and in the presence of such operating conditions as significant temperature changes and lateral wandering of the belt.
A more general object of this invention is to improve the state of the finger plate art and provide article removal platform assemblies particularly adapted to handle glass articles and to confront broken glass particles that may be found on the incoming conveyor belt without interruption in the flow of articles off the belt.